Christine Dumitriu Van Saanen (1932 – April 2008) was a Romanian-born Canadian writer, educator, engineer and geologist.

Biography

The daughter of a Dutch diplomat in Romania, she was born in Bucharest and was educated there and at the Oil & Gas Institute. She came to Canada in 1977. She taught at the École Polytechnique de Montréal and then the Université du Québec à Montréal. From 1982 to 1987, she taught at the University of Calgary. In 1982, she founded the Société littéraire francophone de l'Alberta and served as its president until 1987. She then moved to

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, where she was head of a company specializing in artificial intelligence. She moved to Toronto in 1990, where she taught French to members of the public service. In 1992, she founded the

Salon du livre de Toronto The Salon du livre de Toronto is an annual book fair in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, held to celebrate and publicize French language literature."'Les livres' celebrated in Toronto". ''The Globe and Mail'', October 8, 1993. Launched in 1993 as the firs ...

and served as its director general until 2006. The annual prize awarded by the Salon du livre was named the Prix Christine-Dumitriu-van-Saanen in 1999. Van Saanen also taught at Glendon College at York University. She published both scientific articles and poetry. Poetry collections included ''L'Univers est, donc je suis'' (1998), ''Mémoires de la Terre'' (1999), ''Les Heures sable'' (2001), ''La Saga cosmique'' (2003) and ''Hommage aux origines de la vie'' (2006). Van Saanen died in Toronto at the age of 76 from complications related to cancer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Saanen. Christine Dumitriu 1932 births 2008 deaths Canadian poets in French 20th-century Canadian engineers 20th-century Canadian women engineers 21st-century Canadian women engineers 20th-century Canadian geologists Canadian women poets Engineers from Bucharest Romanian writers in French Academic staff of the Université du Québec à Montréal Academic staff of the University of Calgary 20th-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian poets 21st-century Canadian women writers Romanian emigrants to Canada Romanian people of Dutch descent 20th-century Romanian engineers Academic staff of Glendon College Romanian women engineers Canadian women engineers Canadian women scientists